Of Cages and Snakes
by GoldenDragonClouds
Summary: Draco would have to visit the Ravenclaw table tomorrow to figure out what that exchange student had meant. No pairing, slight humor.


**Of Cages and Snakes  
**A Naruto & Harry Potter Crossover**  
By: **GoldenDragonClouds

Draco would have to visit the Ravenclaw table tomorrow to figure out what she meant.

Disclaimer: Don't own.

* * *

Draco stepped back, glancing nervously at her balled fist. Her glove was lined with metal and he did _not_ want to be punched by the girl that had taken out _Goyle_ and _won_. But instead of punching him, the exchange student merely scoffed and launched into an impromptu speech.

"Remember what I said before. Threstrals are caged bird. I feel Threstrals pain. I am caged bird. No. Caged lion. Lion majestic. Lion big!" She gestured with her arms, grinning. Draco had to suppress a need to guffaw at the girl's English, a task made easy once she turned her sharp glare at him. He gulped.

"Lion..." she continued softly, "Want to roam free in plains. Same as me, us. All us in Konoha. We feel free, we like job. But all us job... bad. We need kill." She drew her hand across her throat, as if slicing it.

"Kill people for people safety." By the time she stopped to pause, she was whispering.

At the word _kill_, Draco had frozen. His eyes once more focused on the girl's hands, on the gloves. On closer inspection, one could see where dark, _purple and red_ spots stained the blue. Blood stains. Her hands were marked as well, with small white scars and calluses, no doubt from handling weapons. Like she had handled that steak knife yesterday.

Draco was pulled out of his thoughts by the exchange student's accented voice.

"Blood everywhere, splash, splash! Sharp blades, clang, clang! There jutsu, there weapons, there too many blood spew. Even normal people, no safety!" Her voice had risen to a shout but no one was around, no one else there outside at this time of the night. The girl turned sad eyes on him.

"So sad, all die... No friend mine died yet... One lost. Oh. My mother, father, dead. When I only one and half. Taken care brother. Brother die I only nine." Draco could only stare at her. She stood, tight-lipped, eyes squeezed shut, no doubt to refuse to let tears flow. He was unsurprised when her voice cracked slightly with her next words.

"Konoha take me in. Now I Konoha citizen. Now I not China, I Japan. I kill, I level three. To study more, to be more powerful, I came England, I came Hogwarts."

And so here was the broken girl at Hogwarts. No wonder she had wheeled on Potter with that knife and had refused to talk once about her home when Chang asked.

Draco found himself starting to pity the girl, and told her so, smirking. He regretted it instantly. The pointed end of the same steak knife that the girl had scared everyone with was now angled at his throat, his arms pinned back by a surprisingly strong arm. When had she gotten behind him? She released him at his request to smirk back at him.

"I not normal girl, no! I have hard. I caged lion. Force kill not free caged lion. What you?"

The brunette inched towards him once more, her right hand now twirling the knife as if it was a quill. All intentions of laughing at her disappeared, his eyes now following that cursed knife.

"Ahh, caged serpent. Lie down no move serpent." Her words carried over to him loud and clear, and he flinched as she threw her knife down on the floor. It landed half an inch in front of his foot, having sank at least three inches into the forest floor.

"No, wait! No, free serpent do same thing! Lie down wait until chance come. Snake witty, snake sly. Snake evil." Her voice curled into a snarl.

At this, Draco frowned. The Dark Lord had no influence over in Asia, so why would this girl hate snakes? Besides, she had introduced herself as a _pureblood_, had she not? Well, she had been sorted into Ravenclaw...

"Snake take away all peace of Konoha! Konoha hate snake. I hate snake for taking away friend!" The girl was now furious, gesturing wildly with _another _knife, pulled out from Merlin knows where. "Friend good friend, brother kill all. Including my brother. I hate snake! I come here see more snake! Different snake but people say snake still evil."

Draco raised an eyebrow. _Different_? So the snake she had been talking about had _not_ been the Dark Lord. This was something to tell his father about... His thoughts disappeared when he saw the sad but gentle expression on her face. Pity flooded back. He then frowned at seeing a garden snake in her arms, one that he recognized as being Zabini's pet. When did _that_...

"So sad, snake evil." The girl said with slight remorse. "Snake pretty symbol, one symbol long life, snake eat tail is eternal life, pure white snake is symbol of life rebirth."

She looked at him with large eyes, smiling gently, and Draco stepped back.

"You are white snake. You can rebirth, new, good person."

She stepped up to him, Zabini's garden snake still in her arms.

"I know you good person inside, Malfoy. Shed skin. Shed skin and become new person, new life."

She stepped back, and Draco realized that a snake skin had been tied around his wrist. There had been no snake. Only a shell.

He glanced at her in confusion, but she only smiled mysteriously.

"Go away from evil snake. Don't give in. Don't be like friend. I beg you, Malfoy. I beg you, Draco."

Draco did not move for a while after she had disappeared, standing in the middle of the forest clearing and thinking her words over. Once he had grown used to her pronunciations he could see that she had indeed been trying to tell him something.

Shed his skin, eh?

He would have to drop a visit to the Ravenclaw table tomorrow and talk to that mysterious, bun-haired exchange student.

* * *

A/N:

My friends didn't get this, so I don't necessarily expect my readers to. xD

Don't ask me _what_ Tenten's doing in Hogwarts... nor why she's talking to Draco in the first place... or what they're doing in the _Forbidden Forest_ of all places. I was in China when I wrote this, and kind of frustrated at the levels of English speaking of the hotel concierge... We were in a hotel and the sign clearly said that all of the staff at the information desk could speak English. But no, the only person there who could speak English well enough to understand us was _the manager_. Argh. Well, anyway, short rant over.

Anyone who knows me knows my obsession with using Tenten in all of my stories. Just the simple fact that she has no background story makes her such a fun character to mess with. And Draco... I just _had _to put him in there. Who else would be such fun to scare the hell out of? I mean, come on, I could have done Ron, but he's not_ nearly as_ fun.

This might develop into a long fic, but probably not, as I was rather... hyper... from sugar... when I wrote this. I maybe should have made her a caged bird like I mentioned earlier, but... didn't feel like it. X3

...I only just realized... Voldemort and Orochimaru both liked giving out tattoos as symbols of membership... Cursed tattoos, as a matter of fact...  
This could be interesting. Kukukukukuuu...

Please R&R my little crack-fic!

Ja Ne!

GoldenDragonClouds

June 25th, 2010  
I have uploaded a new story, _Mission: Hoguwatsu_, loosely branched off of this oneshot. Tenten goes to Hogwarts and chaos ensures. What more can you ask for? X)  
Ja Ne!  
~Golden


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